Los Angeles City Hall vs Bullocks Wilshire Building

Comparing the Los Angeles City Hall and the Bullocks Wilshire Building is especially interesting because they share much in common. Both rise in Los Angeles, CA both were designed by Parkinson & Parkinson, and they were completed just one year apart.

This overlap gives us a unique opportunity to understand how Parkinson & Parkinson approached different commissions in the same urban context and historical context during a short period.

The Los Angeles City Hall is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 453ft (138m) with 28 floors above ground, while the Bullocks Wilshire Building reaches 240ft (73m) with 12 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Los Angeles City Hall and the Bullocks Wilshire Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So Parkinson & Parkinson followed what was in many ways expected at the time, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms rather, than breaking with convention.

The Los Angeles City Hall is primarily governmental, while the Bullocks Wilshire Building is primarily education.

Originally, the Bullocks Wilshire Building was designed for retail, but over time it was converted to education. The Los Angeles City Hall by contrast has maintained its original role.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.